Around the Premier League: April 23

With Arsenal and Chelsea playing this Tuesday, the Premier League is back for another week of matches.

It has been a three-way race for the top seed all season long and that trend should continue as the season begins to wind down.

Arsenal, Liverpool and Man City are all within striking distance of taking the regular season title, and currently, Arsenal holds the lead with 74 points.

The Prem has seen loads of star talent all season long, but a star striker from Aston Villa could be the best player right now in the entire league.

Ollie Watkins can not only get it done as a scorer, but he also leads the league in assists with 12 to go along with his astounding 19 goals this season (ranks third in the league).

An obvious challenger to the league honors is one of the most prolific players in the Premier League at only 23 years of age.

Erling Haaland is as dynamite as they come, scoring a goal in what feels like almost every game with 20 goals in 32 total games for Man City this year.

Haaland’s squad has easily been the best in the league for the past three seasons as they will be going for a four-peat this season in the Prem.

What’s crazy to think about is that the top three teams Arsenal, Liverpool and Man City have each allowed less than 33 goals this entire season.

The next closest team to the top three is Everton with 48 total goals allowed this season.

That point should all but illustrate how top-heavy the league is heading into the tail end of the season.

Even though the top three teams are almighty, there are a few underdogs that could make some serious noise down the stretch.

I’ll start off by saying Man United is not one of them, and one of the two teams has the league leader in assists. First off let's discuss Aston Villa.

Villa has been able to keep up with some of the top teams this season, and with star talents like Ollie Watkins and Morgan Rogers, the squad should be able to make it difficult for any of the top teams to win the title this year.

Head coach Unai Emery is in his second season as the head boss at Villa, after coaching at Arsenal and Villarreal before this new job.

The team sitting right behind Aston Villa is Tottenham Hotspur led by their head coach Ange Postecoglou.

Under the current format of the Premier League, the Hotspur have not been able to win a league title. Their last such win came in a different league format known as the Division 1 in 1961.

Coach Ange has been looking to change that as it seems Tottenham is always a supremely talented team year in and year out.

The play of forwards Son Heung-min and Richarlison has been nothing short of spectacular and is a big reason why the Hotspur club has a realistic chance to make noise down the stretch.

Arsenal took care of business on Tuesday defeating Chelsea 5-0, as the rest of the Prem plays throughout the week starting on Wednesday and going through the weekend.

Giustino Racchini is a first-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him please email him at gar5448@psu.edu.